otherversefandomcom-20200215-history
FUDGE
Category:OtherSpace:_Millennium_Skill_System OtherSpace uses FUDGE (The Freeform, Do-It-Yourself Gaming Engine) as a basis for its RPG mechanics. FUDGE is an open source ruleset produced by Grey Ghost Press and is available on the Web. Skills, Attributes and how they interact and are judged are a modified version of this ruleset. Characters The heart of every RPG is the characters. After all, what's playing a role without having a role to play? OtherSpace is no exception. The character is your creation, a product of your imagination. Maybe he's a Martian Legionaire or a corporate shill for a large Sivadian Trust. Maybe she's a Vollistan Interrogator, raised by the Nall to ferret out dissent and rebellion in the Parallax Empire, or maybe she's a Demarian seamstress, daughter of a proud Noble House on New Alhira. Characters are what drives the game. Characters have to interact with the game and each other, however; so, in addition to a background and a history, they require a tangible, quantitative representation of their skills and abilities. This is where the Game part of role-playing comes in. A character is also described by his or her abilities. Is he a Zangali warrior, born ugly and built to last, and possessed of strength well beyond what any other race is capable of? Is she a Nall warrior, lightning quick and vicious by nature? Or is she just a normal, average, everyday Jane that just tries to live her life the best she can? All of them have attributes and skills. ---- Simplified Character Sheet ------------------< Rachael, a Level 2 Female Human>-------------------------- XP: 700 SP: 1 AP: 50/50 Energy: 1440 Minutes: 1480 HP: 64/64 To Next Level: 201 ---< Attributes >------------------------------------------< Value: -6000 >--- Intelligence: Great Perception: Good Constitution: Fair Dexterity: Fair Willpower: Good Charisma: Good Strength: Good Psi: Non-existent (Scale: -3) ---< Skills >----------------------------------------------< Value: 71000 >--- Fair Computer Operation Fair Investigation Fair Computer Programming Superb Terran Standard Fair Information Security Poor Tracing ---< Gifts, Faults, and Quirks >-------------------------------< Value: 0 >--- Computer Specialist ------------------------------------------------------< Skill System 3.00 >--- Our character sheet subject is the fictitious Rachael, who is a comp-sci student, and makes a great starting point for discussing the skills system. Attributes Attributes are the aspects of a character all characters have, no matter how great or minimal. The only exception to the is Psi. Attributes, like skills, are rated from Non-Existent to Superb. Generally speaking, a pre-racial scaling stat below mediocre (excluding psi) indicates a disability related to the attribute. For example, poor constitution may indicate a chronic illness, or poor charisma may indicate a disorder that inhibits one's ability to interact with others. Mediocre to good composes the large part of the bell curve of stats a character may have, where great and up indicates excelling. Intelligence Intelligence is a measurement of just that. This is a combination of learning, experience and potential that a character has upstairs. Rachael had a good education, and some innate potential (Intelligence: Great). As a programming student, she doesn't need to be Einstein, although a little common sense and some training don't hurt. Values would represent the following: Terrible (-3) - This individual is severely retarded by the standards of his race. He's probably unable to speak properly or perform simple problem solving tasks, such as tying his own shoes. 'Poor (-2)-' Looking up, but still not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. A person with a poor intellect is mildly retarded, and could probably find a job pushing a mop around on the floor. Good luck getting him to actually dunk the mop in water first. 'Mediocre (-1)-' The lowest functional intelligence for that race. This is the guy we all know from High School, you know, the one pumping gas down at the local Handi Stop now. 'Fair (0)-' Middle of the road. You're a capable individual and able to function normally in society. You aren't going to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in your lifetime, but you get along just fine. 'Good (1)-' You're fairly sharp and probably educated or blessed with an abundance of common sense. You can do just about anything you apply yourself to, except maybe quantum physics. 'Great (2)-' You're whip smart. You never have trouble picking up new tasks or new bits of information. You can do anything you apply yourself to and do it well. 'Superb (3)-' You are a genius, hands down. You can calculate PI in your head while pontificating on why Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is flawed. Not only do you have raw potential, you have realized potential in some way, shape or form. Perception Perception manifests itself in a variety of ways. It's not just eyesight or hearing, but the ability to focus your attention to the world around you. Rachael is with slightly above average perception (Perception: Good). Values would represent the following: 'Terrible (-3)-' You're a rock. People have to try for hours to get your attention, and usually have to use bright lights and loud sounds to do so. 'Poor (-2)-' You're not quite a rock. People still have to try for hours to get your attention, but they usually just jump up and down and wave to do it. 'Mediocre (-1)-' You just don't pay attention to things. You're the guy who buys his girlfriend a cat collar the day after Fluffy got run down by the drunk guy down the street. 'Fair (0)-' You do a pretty good job of noticing things. You'd probably make a lousy detective, but you won't be falling into an open manhole any time soon. 'Good (1)-' You sometimes pick up on things that other people don't. You're more likely to notice something that's out of place, or pick out a suspicious character. 'Great (2)-' You've got a knack for finding things. Maybe it was all the hunting trips as a kid or maybe you're hardwired that way, but you notice things that have other people scratching their heads. 'Superb (3)-' Nothing gets past you. You're so perceptive it borders on ESP, you'd notice the shift in the wind when a butterfly flaps its wings. Willpower Willpower encompasses your powers of self-regulation. This is your ability to resist everything from a mental command to a two hundred credit watch you know you can't afford. Rachael, has above average willpower (Willpower: Good). Values would represent the following: 'Terrible (-3)-' You are the definition of sheep. There isn't an infomercial that you haven't bought from yet. Your garage is littered with Garden Weasels and Ab Rollers. 'Poor (-2)-' You constantly fall to temptation, whatever your poison happens to be. Alcoholics and drug addicts are a good representation of poor willpower. 'Mediocre (-1)-' You've got a large collection of bits and pieces you thought would be cool but now take up space. Alternately, you are a submissive personality. 'Fair (0)-' It's half and half with you. Sometimes you stand strong, sometimes you give in. 'Good (1)-' You've got determination. You can force yourself to do obviously dangerous things and you don't pay a lot for your muffler. 'Great (2)-' You can deny yourself almost anything and your mind is locked up tighter than Fort Knox. 'Superb (3)-' You're possessed of an extremely strong will, able to resist all but the most powerful psionics and urges. Charisma Charisma is a combination of traits. Physical attractiveness plays only a minor role in this statistic, as some races will never find another attractive (minus a few deviants). Force of personality and general likeability make up the bulk of this attribute. Rachael is is pretty likable (Charisma: Good) and likely doesn't lack for a few friends and contacts. Values would represent the following: 'Terrible (-3)-' You are either horribly disfigured or socially retarded. People make pains to avoid you at all costs (Hint: They really don't have a sick aunt.) 'Poor (-2)-' You're a bore. People tend not to like you and sometimes even tell you so. 'Mediocre (-1)-' There's something odd about you that people can't quite put theirfinger on. It makes them slightly uncomfortable around you. 'Fair (0)-' You've got friends, you've got enemies. Neither of them is going to follow you to the gates of hell. 'Good (1)-' You're a people person. You've never had a problem getting along with people and would make an excellent used hovercar salesman. 'Great (2)-' You inspire people with your words and action. You'd have a hell of a career as a politician. 'Superb (3)-' Like Gandhi or Kennedy, or even Joe Stalin, you have the ability to erect a cult of personality around yourself. Dexterity Dexterity is the speed of your reflexes. It covers everything from how fast you are off of the traffic light to whether or not you move fast enough to catch an infield line drive heading for your coconut and how fast you can get out of the way of fire. Rachael has average reflexes (Reaction: Fair). Values represent the following: 'Terrible (-3)-' Doctors measure your reaction time on a calendar, and you are accident prone. 'Poor (-2)-' People usually get one or two good beeps of the horn before you finally realize the light has indeed turned green, a bit of a klutz, but looking up. 'Mediocre (-1)-' You're slower than average. You were the last kid anyone wanted on their softball team at recess (except for Marvin, the kid with the coke bottle glasses). 'Fair (0)-' You manage to avoid the beeps at the light, most of the time. 'Good (1)-' Your faster than average and had no problem playing outfield in high school. 'Great (2)-' You're the guy who grew up racing everything he could get his hands on. Even when you're surprised, you can usually react appropriately. 'Superb (3)-' You've got the reaction time of a good hockey goalie or champion drag racer. Strength Strength is actually a measure of two things, physical strength and density or mass. The higher the strength score, the more massive the character. Rachael is a fairly strong girl (Strength: Good), having spent some recreation time at the gym. Values represent the following: 'Terrible (-3)-' Babies and extremely small critters fall into this range. 'Poor (-2)-' You've got the frame and strength of a frail child. 'Mediocre (-1)-' Less time stuffing chips in your mouth and more time at the gym would do you a world of good. 'Fair (0)-' You spend some time working out, but it never became a priority. 'Good (1)-' You're good sized and in good shape. You probably have a job that requires quite a bit of physical exercise. Either that or your just genetically gifted. 'Great (2)-' You like the gym, it's your second home. 'Superb (3)-' You're either a body builder, or genetic freak. Either way, you are massive and as strong as any member of your race. Constitution Constitution is a measure of endurance and general resilience. A good constitution can help with anything from surviving trauma from being shot to surviving rat poison in your afternoon beer. Rachael is a healthy girl (Constitution: Fair) Values represent the following: 'Terrible (-3)-' You catch colds by just looking at sick people. 'Poor (-2)-' You tend to break bones in various, amusing ways, such as being slammed in a door or falling into a couch. 'Mediocre (-1)-' You spent a lot of time out from school as a kid being sick. 'Fair (0)-' You're normal, you get sick and you don't particularly react well to getting shot. 'Good (1)-' You don't spend a lot of time sick and you have a pretty good tolerance for punishing your body. 'Great (2)-' You could go a couple of rounds with Tyson and still walk out of the ring. 'Superb (3)-' You laugh at anything that doesn't involve amputating a limb. Psi Only psionic races or those with psionic gifts have a psi stat, otherwise it is just non-existent, like in the case of Rachael. Values represent the following: 'Non-Existant or below- ' You have no psychic ability. 'Terrible (-3)-' Your psionic ability is minimal, can occasionally do something useful with the ability, but most of the time it doesn't do much for you. 'Poor (-2)-' You have worked a bit on your ability, and can rely on it for small tricks or when you're in a tight spot, but it's not really part of your life. 'Mediocre (-1)-' Psionics and you get along pretty well, you are probably either keeping your coffee nice and warm regularly or using telepathy as a reliable communication technique. 'Fair (0)-' An average member of a psionic race, telepathy is probably a primary language for you, and if your race can do it, telekinesis is so much easier than lifting. 'Good (1)-' You work on your ability regularly, or have innate talent. 'Great (2)-' Psionics are a major part of your life, most of your communication is likely to be telepathic, and lifting may well be an alien concept to you. 'Superb (3)-' You have achieved the pinnacle with psionic ability for your race. A Note On Scale Scale is an adjustment to a character's base attributes. This can be due to the character's race, as some races either fall below or rise above the human norm, or due to gifts and faults. For practical purposes, scale is added to the attribute to determine the effective attribute. A Zangali (Scale 2 for Strength) with fair strength is as strong as a human with great strength. Zangali are not the sharpest knives in the drawer, however (Scale -2 for Intelligence), so a Fair Intelligence Zangali is the equivalent of a Poor human intellect. Insert formula here Skill Categories Attributes are the innate abilities of your character. Skills are the abilities that you learn or pick up on the long, winding road of life. Skills in OtherSpace fall into several groups or categories. Within these categories are specific skills which are usually, but not always, related to each other. Certain skills also require other skills, or prerequisites, before they can be purchased. The following is a quick rundown of skill categories and examples of skills in those categories. Artistic Artistic skills cover a broad range. From painting to poetry, jewelry to underwater basket weaving, anything requiring both creativity and skill to create a work of art is covered. If your character wants a career as an artist of any type, from performer to writer, this is the place to look for those skills. Artistic skills are usually subject to unopposed taskrolls during the course of creating a work of art or performing. Combat Combat skills are fairly self-explanatory. If it involves beating, shooting or blowing someone up, it’s here. If you want to be the guy who knows which end of the pistol to point at the enemy, look here. Engineering Engineering covers a wide range of technical skills. Construction and architecture join mechanics, electrical systems, and drafting to form this skill set. If your character has a knack for building things (or taking them apart, for that matter), then he's going to want to take a look at this skill group. Fringe Contrary to the name, this skill group does not involve making frilly clothing or table fringes. Fringe refers to skills of dubious legality. Gambling, safecracking, lockpicking, and torture are just some of the skills that make up this highly useful skill set. If your character dabbles in less than legal activities, visiting here is essential to their survival. Languages Languages cover all of the languages spoken among the worlds of the Orion Arm. Languages are one of the more expensive skill sets due to the amount of time, study, and experience that goes into learning a new, alien language. So, if you ever really wanted to know what that Zangali was saying to you when he threw you out of the bar (and through the wall, incidentally), then languages is for you. Liberal Arts Remember those guys in college that had all the fun and lightweight classes like Astronomy and Sociology? Those were liberal arts majors and this skill group covers that area. Medical Want to help society? Cure illness? Bandage up the poor and the needy? Then you'll probably be looking into the Medical skill group. First aid is the most basic skill in the set. Each separate race has its own peculiarities and requires an intricate understanding of its physiology to be an effective doctor for that race. It's awful embarrassing to remove a patients appendix and find out you just removed his stomach instead. Physical As the name suggests, this skill group covers such physical endeavors as climbing, running, and swimming. Also covered, animal riding, gymnastics, and golf. We're still debating that last one, but it doesn't fit in anywhere else. Basically, any physical skill that doesn't involve maiming people falls in this category. Professional The Professional skill group is probably the most diverse. It deals with jobs that fall out of the scope of the other skill groups. Law enforcement, fire fighting, tailoring, logistics and other skills necessary for various jobs fall under the bailiwick of this skill group. Psionic Psionic skills are limited to only a few races who are, incidentally, psionic. Castori, Centauri, Vollistan and Mystics fit this bill. Timonae are mildly psychic but don't possess the power of any of the former races mentioned. Other psionic races exist, just not as player characters. Psionics cover the gamut of cool mental tricks from controlling someone else's mind to moving objects with the power of a thought. Only Vollistans get the cool glowing effect, sorry. Scientific So, you're character has a big brain and wants to prove it? Science is where its at then. Chemistry, physics, anything ending in -ology. If you want to work in a lab, wear a white coat, and have people call you doctor but faint at the sight of blood, science is probably for you. Social Ahh, interaction with other people (or Zangali, or Demarians, or Nall, take your pick). Social skills make the universe go round. Most skills dealing with people fall under the Social group. Leadership, Intimidation, and even Seduction and Bluffing are all social skills. Vehicle Operations You're character is a hotshot pilot you say? Well, she isn't getting far without some sort of vehicle operation skill. Hang gliders, hovercars and spaceships are all governed by these skills, as is manning the turret gunnery on some of the heavier outfitted ships. Prerequisites Some skills don't come easily or cheaply. Most of these skills involve a lot of highly specialized education. Generally, skills in the Science and Engineering groups and some of the more advanced combat skills require other skills before they can be taken. Some skills require more than one prerequisite, some require a certain level of the prerequisite skill. Gifts, Quirks, And Faults Gifts, Quirks, and Faults are specialized attributes that can be purchased at character creation. Alternately, they can be applied if certain conditions are met during play. If selected at character generation, the gift or fault will either cost or refund a specific amount of XP depending on the usefulness or debilitation the gift or fault creates. It is your responsibility to play out the gift or fault. If these are ignored, consequences usually follow. (I.E. the insomniac that falls asleep at the controls of his ship.) Taskrolls Or How Do I Use All Of This Stuff Okay, you've got a character, you've decided on his race. You've decided what he was going to do for a living and what his life has been like. You've filled in the blanks on your sheet appropriately and decked him out with some skills and maybe a gift or fault or two. Now what? Well, during the course of the game, you will come across situations that require these skills and attributes to resolve. There are two types of taskrolls used in OtherSpace, the opposed and unopposed taskrolls. The opposed taskroll is used when skills or attributes from two different characters (or a character and an NPC) are used against each other. Combat is one good example, although a game of cards or arm wrestling match also works. Unopposed taskrolls cover tasks that are used either to create something or against an inanimate object. These have an applied difficulty level depending on the complexity of the task or the results are determined by the roll. Unopposed taskrolls Normally for an unopposed taskroll the modifier is +1. This chart demonstrates guides for other modifiers: *+4 or greater: Trivially easy, any training or education at all can leave this task to be accomplished. Most of the time these are not even rolled. Examples include the strength to push elevator buttons, tying shoes, and turning a computer on. *+3: Very Easy, but most of the time requires some level of training to have a good chance of success. Putting out small kitchen fires, driving to the corner store, and finding a common site on the Infomatrix via a seach are examples. *+2: Easy, takes some skill, but a decent amount of training can leave one in a good position to deal with these challenges. Examples include low level logic students quickly making Venn diagrams, computer programming types writing programs slightly more advanced than 'Hello World', and driving to that corner store in a few inches of snow. *+1: Routine or simple: More occupational tasks at the entry level are at this level. Filing reports in on time, writing code to meet deadlines, knowing enough about security for a bodyguard to notice the common points of entry. *0: Mildly Challenging, most occupational tasks at this level require a level of experience to do with a high degree of reliability. *-1: Challenging. Winning against someone in a long running game of cards using minor cheats, swimming a couple miles with a fifty pounds of equipment, firing a weapon at someone using light cover. *-2: Difficult: Using primitive tools for a repair job, working on putting out fires the size of large buildings, difficult and cutting edge surgery operations all fall within this category. *-3: Very Difficult: Tasks in this category are enough to challenge even the most experienced. Shooting at one behind heavy cover, swimming long distances with heavy supplies, and keeping order in extremely large riot situations all fall under the category. *-4 or more: Virtually impossible: The hardest of tasks that not even legends would undertake lightly. Opposed Taskroll Opposed taskrolls involve one character rolling a relevent skill, against another character rolling a relevent skill. For example, two engineers trying to race to complete an engine repair may both roll Engineering at 0, with the one scoring higher finishing first. Skill Defaults If one does not have a needed skill, or has it at a low level, there is the chance a skill default will be used instead. The potential defaults may be seen within a +sinfo help file for a given skill. These skills are checked as though they were three levels lower (five levels lower if it is checking an attribute), if they are higher than the actual skill needed by a character, the default will be used automatically.